We know what happens if we keep 3 centre halves though. 0 goals. 0 home wins for Eustace. 1 point against 10 men. Last day peril. We’ve gone from a manager who believed we could beat any time regardless of the opposition (see West Ham / Leicester away), to one who doesn’t trust his team to go for a win against 10-man Coventry at home.

Another Broughton master stroke. At least Telalovic wasn’t his major striking target. That was Ennis.

Yes. And ultimately it meant we didn't score and didn't win against 10 men. Therefore going into the final day in a precarious position against the champions-elect rather than being safe. Bravo. Plus the fact remains that they may only have played 2 up front because we stuck with 3 at the back.

Funnily enough I may (or may not) have been at the services on the motorway this morning and may (or may not) have seen Mark Robins. I asked him "Why did you leave two men up front, even with 10 men?" He gave a fairly logical explanation. Here's what he said:- "Blackburn kept 3 centre halves on the pitch meaning we were not so outnumbered in midfield or at the back. Therefore we kept two up top with the hope to try and nick a goal. What we didn't want was them passing it through us by having an extra man in midfield, but because they utilised their extra man in defence we just though "you stupid bastards" and let them pass it around at the back. I had some defensive players ready to come on had Blackburn gone more positive, but they seemed quite content with a point"

I know you are ultra gullible and believe every word that comes out of people like Broughton and Waggot. But believe it or not sometimes people say things which aren't true to put out an appearance. Nowhere has Broughton or Waggot said "We had to sell Adam Wharton earlier than we liked because we have cash flow problems due to the Indian court case", but we clearly know this is true. Therefore, what Broughton should have said on TK was "We rejected some bids to try and get the price up, but ultimately £2.5million was as much as we could get. We could have a possible cash flow issue coming up which makes us a more willing selling club that we would like." Here's Rich Sharpe, back in July in the LT, saying "It is understood that Rovers would want between £3m and £4m were they to allow Kaminski, who has two years left to run on his contract, leave this summer." Another article online , quoting Nixon as its source, saying we would want up to £5 million. (Also frustratingly JDT saying he expects nobody to leave and he wants quality coming into the squad ). If Luton would have stopped at £2million we would have played hardball for a few days and then taken it. Szmodics will leave this summer for whatever the highest bid we can get will be. It will have nothing to do with a 'valuation'.

No with Kaminski we got to the figure we thought Luton would pay and then sold. He was worth far more than £2.5 mill.

But I thought once a Premier League team comes in there’s nothing you can do to keep a player who wants to move. Cos that’s what you’ve said about Kaminski all season.

It’s not elevated beyond reality. JDT had very good spells, ok spells and very bad spells. However for the first time since 2012 I think some of us actually thought we had a genuine chance of promotion last season under him, that was until the transfer window was fucked up and the results wilted under pressure at the end. This season started quite well but we now know JDT had had enough and didn’t want to be here, and his stubbornness was affecting results and morale. Eustace however has shown nothing other than negativity, culminating in a points return equaling JDT’s worst ever spell (with the previous mentioned injuries) and hasn’t won a single home game, scoring just 4 in 7 games at Ewood. That’s just piss poor.

He’d have probably dropped him for another centre back anyway.

Surprisingly (I have to admit), he played 9 games (starting 8 of them) after JDT left, including the Stoke and the Sunderland wins. More than I thought.

Same reason Huddersfield are down. Although obviously I hope you are right.

Because it’s simply an unknown. I’m fairly sure the return of Hedges, Hyam, JRC, Gallagher, Pears and Dolan might have given JDT a bit of a chance to stop the slide.

I have to admit coming off the ground yesterday I was looking at the table thinking we were in a good situation. This morning however , it still looks so precarious. Norwich will field a weakened team, and I expect West Brom to be well in front early against Preston so Hull will know whatever they do at Plymouth is probably futile.

I meant for a centre half. Not like for like with JRC.

Eustace Home record:- Played 7 Won 0 , Drawn 5, Lost 2 We’ve scored 4 goals in these 7 games, conceding 7. That’s dire, and that’s what they have to sell season tickets on the back of. Yet It looks like almost 16,000 home fans yesterday against Coventry despite the run we are on. At £15 a ticket. As we’ve often said, do it for decent Saturday games and not unappealing Wednesday night games and the evidence is there cheaper tickets work.

You ask @roversfan99 this like it’s a difficult question when it is obvious. They had two up front only because we kept 5 at the back. If we had put an extra midfielder or attacker on they would have had to have withdrawn one of their attackers because they would have been overrun in midfield. Ayari, Moran or Markanday should have been on within 5 minutes of the red card.

The problem is Chaddy your ‘viewpoints’ constantly are things like “the manager is good”, “the recruitment has been good”, “the tactics are good”, “I think we will finish close to top 6.” And yet here we are going into the last day hoping to stave off relegation.

Exactly. @chaddyroversis just being a bit giddy cos we didn’t get beaten. However there are little statistics to be positive about regarding Eustace. We could have started without Gallagher and with Ayari in midfield and JRC wider. We could have switched from 3 centre halves when they went down to 10 men. I applaud the effort today. They looked like they knew it was an important game , unlike the week before against Wednesday. It’s just with Sammy slightly misfiring, there is no goals at all in that side.

Just the 1 (enforced) change from last Sunday. Brave from Eustace, because if this lot turn in the same shite performance again he is going to get absolute pelters.

Waggot attempting to employ shiny object syndrome on the forum.

By 5pm we could be in the bottom 3 and Burnley could be out of it.

Because the people running the club are thick and incompetent

If any of the players revolted under Mowbray there was a chance they might be dropped and eventually replaced with someone brought in like a £5million Sam Gallagher, a £7million Ben Brereton, a Stuart Downing or a Harvey Elliot. Under JDT they are thinking “are you really gonna drop me for a 17yo kid or that bloke from the German third tier”. They knew it was highly unlikely they would be be replaced before the manager went That’s why the players were able to take the piss with JDT at the end, probably also knowing he wanted out as well so he was going to be gone soon enough.

Exactly. So they signed 4 players who improved the team. We brought in 6 players. One who has been useful but 5 who havent played despite us being in relegation form since Janaury. That clearly wasnt trying to "back the manager and improve." Travis / Wharton out and Fleck in is one of the biggest bits of WTF transfer activity we will ever see.

If we stop up I’d give him the first half of next season despite having reservations. If we go down then , considering where we were when he took over, I have little confidence he could lead us back up and I would prefer to be shut of him. Would I renew my season ticket at existing prices? I honestly don’t know. It’s easy to be knee-jerk and say no, but with the prospect of either loads of unfriendly kick off times in the championship or the likes of Lincoln, Stevenage and Northampton to look forward to its not appealing.